4 MURDER-TRIAL JURORS UNHAPPY WITH VERDICT

Describing a tense and angry week of deliberations marked by confusion, four of the jurors in the Queens trial for the killing of one police officer and the wounding of another now say they are dissatisfied with their verdict, which one of them termed ''crazy.''

In seven days of deliberation, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the major charge of murder in the death of Officer John Scarangella, but it convicted the two defendants on the lesser charge of attempted second-degree murder in the wounding of his partner, Officer Richard Rainey.

The officers were sitting in the front seat of their patrol car on April 16, 1981, in St. Albans, Queens, when two assailants fired more than 30 shots into the car.

Of the 12 jurors, only five agreed to be interviewed about their deliberations. The others either could not be reached or declined to talk about the case.

Those who would discuss it said that an early breakdown of discipline and concern over whether the jurors would be criticized by their ''peers'' after the trial had made deliberations more arduous. Nine of the jurors were black, two were Hispanic and one was white.,

In addition, they said there had been an apparent unwillingness to send the defendants, 33-year-old Anthony N. LaBorde and 41-year-old James D. York, to prison for life. The lesser charge on which they were convicted carries a possible sentence of eight and one-third to 25 years.

''Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong,'' said one of the jurors, William Benton. Apparent Contradictions

The five jurors interviewed said that a need to compromise had led to a verdict with apparent contradictions; one said they had expected the judge to reject it. Although the victims were police officers, the jury rejected a conviction for first-degree attempted murder, a charge that applies to police officers; they settled for conviction on the second-degree charge, which applies to civilians.

From the five jurors' accounts, a picture emerges of 55 hours of deliberations featuring illnesses and bouts of crying and shouting that were said to determine the pace, rhythm and often the substance of deliberations. At other times, according to those interviewed, the two jurors who steadfastly rejected a guilty verdict set the pace.

''We all turned out to be such different people,'' said one juror who agreed to talk about the experience if she were not quoted by name. ''I don't think any of us could really be friends. We hardly exchanged phone numbers when it was over.'' A Casual Conversation

Mr. Benton said that, for him, the discord to come had been foreshadowed by a casual conversation early in the trial with another juror, Franklin R. Morris, over why the freezing of water in pipes can cause them to burst. They disagreed, Mr. Benton said, and when he brought in a book supporting his view, Mr. Morris would not be convinced.

According to three members of the jury - Gertrude Rothman (the sole white juror), Mr. Benton and the juror who did not want to be named - the jury immediately discarded the contention of defense lawyers that their clients, as former Black Panthers, had been framed by the police for shooting two white officers. But the three said the jury differed on the credibility of several key witnesses called by the prosecutors.

An informal show of hands on the first day of deliberations had seven jurors voting guilty on the major charge of second-degree murder and five voting not guilty, Mr. Benton said.

By the second day, he said, there was chaos in the jury room, and much of the time was spent trying to set ground rules for orderly debate on the evidence. The jury foreman, Ursula Benjamin, according to two jurors interviewed, was unable to keep order. Mr. Morris, whom Mr. Benton described as ''a dominant personality'' who spoke with authority and was articulate, emerged as the de facto foreman, Mr. Benton said.. Miss Benjamin was among the jurors who could not be reached for comment. Complaints in Notes

The three recalled at least three jurors complaining of illness and wanting to be excused from the trial. At least two such complaints were made in notes to the judge, they said.

The judge, Kenneth N. Browne of State Supreme Court, was out of town and unavailable yesterday to comment on whether such notes had been sent.

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C. Vernon Mason, one of the three defense attorneys, said that the expressions of dissatisfaction on the part of more than one juror would give more weight to the defense motion to set aside the verdict. William M. Kunstler, another defense attorney, said that disclosures about ill jurors about which the attorneys knew nothing might aid the defense in appealing the verdict if it is not set aside.

However, District Attorney John J. Santucci of Queens said that the expressions of dissatisfaction reflected the outcome of most compromises. He added that ''it is not wrong for a jury to compromise.'' Illogical or not, he said, they voted unanimously on at least one charge and he will accept that verdict.

On Thursday, Aug. 5, on their fourth day of deliberations, the jury reported itself deadlocked, but the judge sent it back to try again. Arguments became more heated and some jurors talked about being afraid, the three jurors said.

''One woman was afraid of her shadow and kept changing back and forth,'' said Miss Rothman. ''She said she was afraid because 'I have to go back out there into those streets,' '' said the juror who asked not to be named. She added that several of the women on the jury feared ''retaliation'' from friends of the defendants. 'Concern About Life After Verdict'

Mr. Benton said: ''There was a lot of concern about life after this verdict and what your friends, other blacks, would think about what you had done.''

The jurors, who had been voting by a show of hands, changed to a secret ballot. The 7-to-5 breakdown moved to 9 to 3 for guilty on the main charge of murder, Mr. Benton said.

On Friday night, the jury reported itself deadlocked a second time, and on Saturday the judge delivered a strongly worded formal charge reminding the jurors of their responsibilities.

Back in the jury room on Saturday, two jurors broke down and cried, Mr. Benton said. A secret ballot was taken that showed a 10-to-2 vote for guilty on the major charge. Mr. Morris and one other juror continued to hold out, the three jurors said.

Miss Rothman accused Mr. Morris of seeing it as a ''black and white thing.'' She has since called him and the other holdout juror ''racist.''

But Mr. Benton said, ''It was more a question of personalities than race.'' He said Mr. Morris had helped bring some order to the deliberations and commanded respect as ''a good speaker and down to earth.'' But Mr. Morris also turned out to be the ''kind of person who wouldn't budge when he made up his mind,'' Mr. Benton said.

Mr. Morris, a supervisor with a city social services agency, refused to discuss in detail the jury's deliberations but said he took ''extreme exception'' to the manner in which Miss Rothman had ''maligned and pilloried'' him. 'A Deep Belief'

''There is nothing, nothing racist in my position on that jury,'' he said. ''I have a deep belief in the system of justice in this country. I believe I obeyed the judge's instructions and I did everything that the prosecution and the defense asked me to do in examining and weighing the evidence.''

On Monday, one of the two jurors who were blocking a unanimous verdict suggested that perhaps ''some horse trading'' was possible, according to Mr. Benton, and the process of compromise began.

Mr. Morris and the other holdout juror indicated that they would not accept the more serious of the lesser charges, attempted murder in the first degree. That left the second-degree charge, and the judge had instructed them that a verdict on one of the three lesser charges meant the elimination of the other two. In failing to reach agreement on the major murder charge, the jurors assumed that another jury would deal with it in a new trial, Mr. Benton said.

The verdict was ''a half of a loaf,'' said Mr. Benton. ''I know we were all ashamed to walk out of the courtroom with that verdict,'' he said.

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A version of this article appears in print on August 14, 1982, on Page 1001001 of the National edition with the headline: 4 MURDER-TRIAL JURORS UNHAPPY WITH VERDICT. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe